Friday, September 15, 2017

Community News 9/15/17

DAY 5 OF WEEK 3

Galatians
5:1 / Galatians 5:13

A
Weary World Rejoices

First, to our paralysis. Union with Christ gives us permission to
rest. We don’t have to be burdened by the weight of the possible. We do have so
many choices. But union with Christ says there is one choice more important
than any other choice you will make: Thy will be done or my will
be done?

As
long as your will is set on following Christ, you can rest in the choices you
make. You don’t have to be frozen in fear because your life is no longer in
your own hands. You can surrender your plans to Christ, who has joined his life
to yours.

Second, to our anxiety, to that old way of trying to justify our
existence by our own work. Union with Christ tells us, “you have died,” to that
way of living. To the angst that comes from feeling like you’re not allowed to
fail, or to the feelings of inadequacy that come from feeling like you have. To
those human questions “Am I significant? Have I done enough? Am I accepted?”
the answer is “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1).

This
is the precious biblical truth of justification (Gal. 2:16). You no longer have
to justify your life. You don’t have to worry, like Jay Gatsby, about others
thinking you’re a nobody. You don’t have to go the distance, like Rocky, to
prove you’re not a bum. Christ marries himself to you and in a wonderful
exchange, you give him all your sins, and he gives you all of his
righteousness.

In
Christ, you are significant—he makes you so. In Christ, you are secure—he
gathers you to himself and keeps you safe (Isa. 40:11). In Christ, you are
accepted. But that acceptance no longer has to be earned or maintained; it is
granted by grace and guaranteed in Christ. This doesn’t mean you stop working,
but it does mean you now work in a totally new way. You no longer work for
approval; you work from approval.

American Idol was one of the most popular television shows of all time, and
for the contestants, one of the most nerve jangling. A single missed note could
cost you the competition, but winning could change the course of your life. At
the end of each season, when the competition was over and the winner had been
crowned, she took up the microphone and sang one more time. But she was no
longer singing to win; she was singing because she had won.

It
was no longer a contest. She had nothing more to prove or earn. Instead, the
chosen and honored performer could sing with all her heart, delighting in her
gifts for the benefit of others. That’s the freedom from anxiety the gospel
gives. You have already been chosen and crowned in Christ, so now you can do
what you do with all your energy, delighting in whatever gifts God has given
you for the benefit of serving others